SolidWorks World general session day 3 is typically all about the next feature set in the traditional version of SolidWorks. This year SolidWorks 2015 was the focus and the Product Marketing group performed another skit, as they have since 2007ish, and this year it was a parody of Batman called CADMAN!

The skit was entertaining and corny but they showed off some good stuff to come in the next build of SolidWorks. These are all on the live blog with pictures of many of these new features. Below is a list of what was shown....

Split command now cuts surfaces (SolidWorks)

Define asymmetric fillets - set face fillet bias (SolidWorks)

Switch pattern from a feature to a body pattern without deleting and redefining. (SolidWorks)

Render region tool - draw a box over the screen and render it within the model (PV360)

Midpoint line tool - draw a line from midpoint and it auto relates (SolidWorks)

SolidWorks Inspection integration inside of SolidWorks. It can read many aspects of the drawing like tolerances and other aspects to auto build inspection reports. This tool also runs outside of SolidWorks and can do OCR (Optical Character Recognition) of PDF and TIFF Files. (SolidWorks Inspection)

SolidWorks Enterprise PDM Web2 - A server-side web client that can run in any browser and has mobile specific views for phones and tablets. It also can call up eDrawings mobile from the device for viewing and markup. (SolidWorks EPDM)

In addition to this list, Neil Cooke also talked about a few things that would be available for users in 2014 as well. The first was an integrated task pane in SolidWorks, Draftsight and eDrawings to access the 3DExperience communities as well as a new 3DExperience dashboard that will give users a cloud drive that is accessible from SolidWorks, Draftsight, Mechanical Conceptual etc, and allow users to share content to members of their teams. They also show a complete web based version of eDrawings as well.

No details to whether this was part of your SolidWorks subscription or if it would come at additional cost. As details come available, I will update this post. ~Lou

In the excitement of SolidWorks announcing eDrawings Pro for Android, I completely missed another announcement at the very bottom of the SolidWorks blog post. eDrawings Meetings, a collaborative, real-time markup and interaction mode, is being shown as a sneak peek at SolidWorks World. eDrawings Meetings will allow remote interaction and utilize the Augmented Reality (AR) as well as other markup tools in eDrawings in real-time.

The post does state an example scenario between two offices and mentions specifically eDrawings for iPad, so hopefully this not another iOS first feature of eDrawings mobile. SolidWorks is previewing a "pre-Beta" version of eDrawings Meetings and wants to get feedback from the community. They have not yet released a date for eDrawings Meetings but keep an eye out for announcements soon. ~Lou

This will be a hosted solution at first but there are plans to offer a private cloud option that runs behind the firewall.

Inviting users to collaborate is free through the SwYm community and they do not have to have a license of Mechanical Conceptual.

The cost will be $2988 USD ($250/mo) *unsure if this will be offered in a monthly payment plan but was mentioned on stage.

Resellers will begin selling it on April 2, 2014.

Many of these questions were being asked when Mechanical Conceptual debuted at last year's SolidWorks World. Today they also interviewed four of their "lighthouse" testing group and they explained how it fit into their workflows for concept design. One of them even said they were opening 56,000 part assemblies in 1/3 of the time of SolidWorks.

This all sounds promising but there are still some questions that remain that hopefully will be explained by the end of the conference. Here are a few:

How does Mechanical Conceptual work with SolidWorks? (Once the concept is done, what is the workflow to move the design further in SolidWorks)

Is there an offline mode or a way to work when disconnected. (Being a Chromebook user, I see the power of the cloud and have ways to use my device when disconnected)

What operating systems will SWMC run on? Since this is not just a flimsy thin-client, will it run on Windows, Mac, Linux? What about mobile platforms?

What happens when the service is terminated? How to I get my data? I liken this to Google Takeout, an initiative to make is easy to take data out of their services.

It is still early and I will post an update to this post once I get some answers over the next couple of days. ~Lou

SolidWorks World 2014 is on it's way beginning with their annual kickoff in the partner pavilion. The partner showing seems to be comparable to recent years and the promise of new product announcements is all the buzz. Mechanical Conceptual, announced last year at SolidWorks World, had a place in the DS booth tonight but nothing was being revealed yet. The anticipation, among many of the attendees, is in the actual details of how this new product will work, cost and integrate into their current workflows.

The live blog kicks off tomorrow at 8:30am PST and if you cannot watch it live and ask questions, you can come back and replay the event at any time. If you are interested in having notes for any of the sessions, submit your sessions here. Coverage of the event will be covered on Google+ and twitter as well under the hashtag #sww14. ~Lou